NASA eClips

The National Aeronautics and Space Agency is posting a variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational videos freely available for use in the classroom or home environment. Called “NASA eClips,” the program provides short videos for different age groups on both YouTube and the NASA educational website. Some of these videos are directly created by NASA and others are provided by partners or organizations that donate their video for posting.

NASA 360 video provides the public an
opportunity to learn about real-life
applications of science, technology,
engineering and mathematics. (Credit: NASA)

NASA and its partners – the National Institute of Aerospace, CaptionMax, Internet Archive, and YouTube – are committed to regularly adding 5 to10 minute long video content to both versions of the eClips repository. All videos are tagged as appropriate for one of four age groups – grades K-5, grades 6-8, grades 9-12, and the general public – and are further split into eight subject areas: aeronautics, communications and launch, Earth, exploration, living in space, STEM basics, Sun, and Universe. Not all categories in all age groups are populated at this time, but plans include producing videos appropriate for each segment in the future.

Much of the content of eClips video is directly related to the space program in some way, including videos of various elements of the Hubble Space Telescope program, Space Shuttle design, and what it’s like to live in space, but many other videos educate students about basic scientific principles and how common mechanical tool work. For example, the repository includes videos covering how pulleys work, how elevators operate, the law of conservation of energy, propulsion, ratios, and the effects of oil spills on the environment.

in this NASA eClips video you can discover
three topics NASA is currently developing.
The Cassini-Huygens is a spacecraft
NASA sent to check out Saturn. (Credit: NASA)

According to NASA, each eClips video will also have an accompanying educator guide providing teachers with examples of how to effectively use the video to help teach specific concepts and material, but only a few of these guides currently exist.

The YouTube repository contains all videos in the program, while the NASA site only includes the subset of videos compliant with the Section 508 accessibility standards including close captioning. The NASA site is intended as a backup site for those teachers and classrooms not permitted to access YouTube; anyone who can, should use the YouTube site to watch NASA eClips video.

The YouTube eClips repository can be found here. The NASA hosted repository can be found here. The original press release announcing the program can be found here. A short statement on the educational philosophy used during the creation of these videos can be found here.

Janice Karin has a B.A in physics from the University of Chicago and a
M.S. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to
extensive experience as a technical writer focused on development
tools, databases, and APIs, Janice has worked as a freelance reporter,
editor, and reviewer with contributions to a variety of technology
websites. One of her primary focuses has been on PDAs and mobile
devices, but she is interested in many other areas of science and
technology.